It’s all very well, aiming to write a blog a day or so after a match to allow for time to reflect and give a different perspective from the usual stuff about referees and individual moments. But the games are coming so thick and fast that by the time anything’s written, the next game is being played and so it’s out of date.
But despite that, some things haven’t changed over the last few days. First, it’s that amazing feeling when our team scores and scores again and takes total control. The passing, the movement, the beautiful game – and we’re playing it. It was good against Forest, better in Portugal, amazing at 0-4. In fact, the last time I felt quite so ecstatic about a match was around the same score at the same stadium earlier this year. What is it about the Olympic Park that seems to encourage us to play like Olympic champions? Before I begin to wax lyrical about the two penalty takers and drop into the cliches we’ve all been reading, I should move on. (Though wasn’t the movement by Gabriel just magnificent? The astonishment I felt as the ball whistled into the West Ham goal and nestled in the back of the net will take some time to forget!)
But what also hasn’t changed is my feeling perplexed at how total control can turn to chaos in an instant. For thirty minutes the defence is imperious, passing the ball calmly and swiftly and without so much as appearing to break into a sweat. Then the opponents get a goal and it changes. Maybe it’s the opponents suddenly sensing their moment. But our tackles become impetuous, lunges and slides that give away free kicks. Passes going astray. Even Saliba and Ødergarrd were losing possession after West Ham threatened to take the game to us. In the end, it passed and the game was concluded without further frenzy, but not without scaring the life out of most of us. (I still get cold shivers at the memory of 0-4 to 44 at St James’s Park.) Do all teams find their legs turn to jelly and control and calm go out the window when superiority is challenged? Or is it that we are so much better that the change from dominant to defensive seems more extreme?
Anyway, three wins and a load of goals – what could be better? And beating teams that are on top form, too. Forest were unbeaten away. Porto were unbeaten. West Ham had just come off a spectacular win at Newcastle. That makes United’s resurgence timely. Roll on Wednesday!
Richard Smith
December 1 2024